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After experiencing catastrophic production delays which wreaked havoc around Europe, we finally have our Disarm Hate x Poetry vinyl! Firstly, we’d just like to apologise profusely to the customers who’ve pre-ordered these and have been waiting patiently for them to arrive.

The records were pressed at Deepgrooves in the Netherlands, which is the greenest pressing plant in the world. But when we sent them our masters back in spring 2021, not even they could have predicted how long it would take for the job to actually be finished. It turns out that COVID + Brexit = quite the combo.

But the important thing is that they’re here now, in all their glory. And as pre-orders are shipped around the UK, out to Europe, and over to the US, the remaining copies are available to purchase here for £20 plus P+P.

You can read more about the Disarm Hate x Poetry project here. And it’s important to note that all profits from these vinyl sales will be split between LGBTQ charities. Apologies again for the delay. And fingers crossed you’ll all love this album as much as we do…!

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After 10 months of grafting, planning, bidding, tweaking, writing, recording, mixing, mastering, designing, crying, loving, sharing, and everything else that’s gone into it…the culmination of the ‘Disarm Hate x Poetry‘ project is finally out in the world.

This ‘We Will Keep On’ album features specially commissioned responses to the ‘Disarm Hate‘ documentary from 16 leading LGBTQ poets. The poems feature alongside documentary clips layered over Ralph Stevens’ original soundtrack. And the album has been released worldwide to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the Orlando massacre.

All profits from album sales will be split between Contigo Fund in the US and Stonewall UK. There’ll be a 2LP gatefold album released later in the summer, which is available to pre-order through our Bandcamp site. We’re immensely proud and humbled to have released this album, and hope that it’s received as a valuable contribution to the global LGBTQ community.

We also issued a call-out for public responses as audio submissions. As promised, a selection of these submissions have been released on a free digital album – entitled ‘Sometimes, The Revolution is Small’.

Special thanks to Arts Council England for part-funding this as part of their National Lottery Project Funds, and to Rugged Entertainment for approaching us last summer. Enjoy…

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Our new project is our most ambitious to date and underlines our core aim when it comes to social and political issues. The ‘Disarm Hate x Poetry’ project has seen us commission 16 of the world’s leading LGBTQ poets to respond to the ‘Disarm Hate‘ documentary. The resulting album will be released digitally on 12 June, which marks five years since the Orlando massacre.

The poems will be interspersed with interview excerpts from the documentary, which feature on Ralph Stevens’ soundtrack album. We’ve worked in partnership with Rugged Entertainment in LA to create this as an official response to the documentary and are immensely proud and honoured to have been given this opportunity.

The album, entitled ‘We Will Keep On‘, will also be released on 2LP gatefold vinyl later in the summer. Both the vinyl and digital release are available to pre-order here. And thanks to some funding from Arts Council England, we’re able to split the profits between Contigo Fund in Florida and Stonewall UK. It’s vital to us that as much of this project as possible goes back into the LGBTQ community.

Our 16 poets are: Afshan D’souza Lodhi, Andrés Nicolás Ordorica, Andrew McMillan, Antonia Jade King, Buddy Wakefield, Dean Atta, Ella Otomewo, Emanuel Xavier, Joelle Taylor, Kay Ulanday Barrett, Keith Jarrett, lisa luxx, Oli Spleen, Ollie O’Neill, Patrizia Longhitano, and Reece Lyons.

The ‘Disarm Hate x Poetry’ project

We’ll be hosting some free virtual workshops with poets featured on the album. The first two are linked to a call-out for audio submissions, and the second two will be linked to a call-out for written submissions. For now, you can read more about the project in my latest The State of The Arts column.

The Orlando massacre sent shockwaves through the LGBTQ community. We wanted this album to represent a cross-section of that community and to hopefully provide a valuable contribution to the dialogue. It’s a major landmark for LGBTQ people around the globe and we’re overwhelmed by our poets’ final pieces.

A huge thank you to everybody that’s helped to make this a reality. Stay tuned for more…